A Flower's Petals
by Bakufan15
Summary: There was supposed to be a wedding, not a funeral. Kanao was supposed to be gone, dead after a failed mission, not walking the earth as a demon. [Demon Kanao, post-canon, major manga spoilers] [[Discontinued]]


**Chapter 1: The Part Where Everything Goes Wrong**

* * *

_Here, have this thing that's been sitting in my back pocket for about 2 months. If it gets enough traction and people want to see more, I'll begin work on chapter 2._

_Warning: Major manga spoilers ahead. You have been warned_

* * *

Two years. That's how long it'd been since Muzan escaped, claiming the lives of half of the pillars in exchange for the lives of all of his upper moons. The Demon Slayer Corps, of course, felt the hardest of the losses. Demons could be replaced, while human lives could not.  
Shinobu Koucho. Muichiro Tokito. Genya Shinazugawa. All of them were gone and could never come back. With time, Muzan could replace his upper moons, he'd even done so with upper moon six by replacing Daki with Kaigaku within the span of a few months. For the corps, the Hashira couldn't ever be replaced, their spots could only be filled.

Tanjirou, Inosuke, Kanao, and Zenitsu were given the title of Hashira, along with the etched blades that came with it. They all knew that they wouldn't be able to fill the shoes of those that came before them, but they sure as hell were going to try.

Tamayo's cure didn't work. Well, it _sort of_ worked, but it wasn't as effective as it needed to be. The cure could help lower strength demons regain their sanity, and even lose a few of their demonic traits, but it wasn't effective enough to have lasting effects on any upper level demons, like anything of a lower moon's power or above. Nezuko hadn't been cured, but she was one step off, having given her back her mind and full cognitive strength.

And then, of course, there was the last fatality of the battle with Muzan: Tamayo herself. Yushiro was completely and utterly broken, having locked himself in a room at the butterfly estate for two weeks after the fight and hardly responding to any prompting while refusing to leave. It made Tanjirou's heart pang every time he walked by the room, his nose was filled with the scent of grief that persistently emanated from under the door. The boy later left the estate in the middle of the night a number of days later, and nobody had heard from nor seen him since.

Tamayo's death was also a massive loss, maybe not for the corps itself, but for Tanjirou personally. When Tamayo died, most of her knowledge died with her. They still had her notes and research documents, but much of it was indecipherable and in some sort of code, one which only Yushiro could decrypt (and he was MIA). The search for a cure for Nezuko had all but halted, brought to a standstill while the world shook in the aftermath of the fight in the Dimensional Infinity Fortress.

If there was one single positive that came out of this situation, it was the fact that they'd weakened Muzan. By slaughtering all but one of his upper moons, they set him back hundreds of years, the losses of Kokushibo, Akaza, and Douma being particularly notable fatalities. Additionally, by absorbing Tamayo, he'd taken in a massive dosage of the prototype cure, and while not potent enough to change Muzan back into a human, it had certainly done a number on his strength, strength that he needed to recover before fighting the corps head on again.

Tanjirou walked into his room in the butterfly estate, setting his nichirin blade down against the dresser and collapsing onto his bed, which creaked under his weight. Tanjirou rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his mind as he stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Is everything alright?"

There it was. One of the only things that still gave Tanjirou solace, one of the few things that distracted him from how everything had gone downhill after that day. The voice of Tsuyuri Kanao, soon to be Kamado Kanao, called to him from the other side of the bed. Tanjirou smiled at her as she turned over, horrible bedhead blocking half of her face from view.

_I forgot that it's the middle of the night_, he thought, _should have been more mindful._

"Yeah, it's just…" he paused for a second, letting out a sigh. "Just had a long day ."

Kanao lifted herself up onto one elbow, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Tanjirou shook his head. "No, that's fine, you've got a mission tomorrow, you need to rest."

Kanao didn't argue, she knew when to push things and when not to, and simply nodded in affirmation, putting her head back down on the pillow. A few moments later, Tanjirou stood, stripping the sweaty, dirty clothing and putting it into the basket to wash the following morning. When his uniform was finally off, he changed into nightwear and returned to the bed, Kanao having already turned back over, breathing softly. Tanjirou let himself have a little smile before crawling into bed, nuzzling up behind her.

He let the comforting warmth and her rhythmic breathing lull him to sleep.

* * *

When Kanao woke, she removed herself from Tanjirou's hold as smoothly as she could, making sure to be careful and not wake him. As much as she wanted to just lay in bed forever, to relish in the comfort that his arms provided, she had a mission today. As Kanao dressed herself in her uniform, she ran over the mission instructions in her head.

_You are to head to the south, around fifteen kilometers south of Natagumo Mountain. There are reports of possible high-profile demon activity Hanawari village. Head there, investigate, and flush out any demon lurking in the shadows._

The instructions were simple, although most missions also started with the same level of instruction. "Go here, find demon, stop demon" is what it boiled down to in the end. There was, however, one thing that did catch Kanao's ear.

_Natagumo Mountain...that name brings back some memories_. It could be said that the encounter with the spider demon family on Natagumo Mountain was the seed that kick-started her entire relationship with not only Tanjirou, but also everyone else that she considered a friend. If not for Tanjirou, Inosuke, and Zenitsu's injuries that they received at the hands of Rui and his 'family', they'd have never been put under the butterfly estate's care, which meant that Kanao would have never trained with them, nor built a camaraderie with them, and most importantly, Tanjirou wouldn't have told her the words that still made her heart flutter to this day. _Listen to what your heart wants to do!_

If there was one thing that the fight with Muzan taught Kanao, it was that life was too short to be wasted, _especially_ for her and her friends, considering their profession. Seeing just how easy it was for even the strongest among them to lose their lives on a moments notice, well, for the second time in her life, something inside of Kanao snapped. In contrast to the last time that she snapped as a small, malnourished, unloved child, this time she decided to take action. She'd lived enough of her life as an empty shell.

She adopted a "no stone left unturned" mindset, so that if she ever were to fall to a demon in a fight, she'd have no regrets, nothing that she wished she could've done. She opened up, following what her heart told her to do, and that led her to some of the happiest times of her life, despite the largely more somber air that loomed around everyone.

She came to terms with her feelings for Tanjirou, and then confessed said feelings to him. The dense idiot thought she was just being overly friendly at first, but he eventually realized that she was serious. A month later, they began officially exchanging letters and courting. A year and a half after that, Kanao proposed that they got married, and he accepted, which led them to where they were now, only a few more weeks until the ceremony was to be held.

Apart from her blossoming relationship with the love of her life, Kanao also found herself reaching out to other people, being more open about how she thought and felt about things, which helped her become closer friends with Zenitsu, Inosuke, and especially Nezuko. She took over as the head of the Butterfly Estate, although Aoi took care of the grounds when she was out on a mission (which was most of the time).

Kanao smiled as she tightened the last string on her boots and threw her white haori over her shoulders, stretching slightly and mentally preparing for the thirty or so kilometer trek she'd need to make to get to her target destination. As she prepared to leave, Kanao took a look around the room to ensure that she hadn't forgotten anything.

_Sword, check. Uniform, check. Butterfly hairpin, check. Additional emergency water and jerky, check. I think that's everything._ Kanao took a deep breath, and her eyes glanced back at the bed, _I almost forgot!_

Kanao walked over and kissed Tanjirou on the forehead softly.

"I'll be back in about a week. Get the rest you need while you wait for me," she whispered, unsure if he could even hear her or if he was still asleep, "I love you."

With that, Kanao grabbed her nichirin blade, strapping it to her side, and left the room, shutting the door softly behind her.

* * *

When Tanjirou woke, the bed next to him was empty.

_Oh yeah, she already left..._he thought hazily, hazily remembering her departure that morning. He'd woken just enough to realize that she was up and felt her kiss on his forehead, but hadn't not enough that he'd had the energy to get up and properly give her a farewell. The last mission had really taken it out of him, both physically and mentally.

In fact, he was still trying to not think about his shortcomings, of the family (yet another one) that he failed to save in time. Another set of lives, ruined by the actions of Kibutsuji Muzan. Tanjirou bit his bottom lip to ground himself, Swinging his legs off the side of the bed, he took a deep breath and walked over to the dresser,throwing on whatever clothes were easiest to put on.

_I need something to distract me, _he decided. Without a second thought, he peeked out the window, checking the sun's position in the sky. _He should be up by now._

* * *

The butterfly estate was larger than it looked on the outside. Walking from one end of it to the other could easily take a solid few minutes. Between the multiple courtyards and the winding, poorly designed hallways, it would even be possible to get lost if one didn't know their way around.

Luckily, Tanjirou _did _know his way around, he'd lived there for almost a year now. A right turn past the medical room, then a left at the kitchens, then the 4th door on the right.

Giyuu Tomioka's room.

Tanjirou knocked, waited a moment, then slid the door open. Giyuu's room was in disarray, as it always was. The futon was still laid out on the ground, skewed at an odd angle, the blankets balled up and unwashed. The rest of the desolate room didn't fare much better, with various articles of clothing skewed across the floor and a perpetual stench that wasn't helped by the lack of natural light.

Tanjirou disregarded the room's state, deciding that part didn't matter at the moment. He instead turned his eyes to Giyuu himself, who was sitting on the lone chair in the dark room, a block of wood and knife in his hand. His hair hadn't been cut in over a year, and he wasn't wearing a shirt. When Tanjirou slid open the door, the man had glanced up for a moment, before nodding silently. He put his knife and half-whittled wooden block down on a desk covered in upwards of fifty different whittled butterflies of varying sizes, and grabbed his shirt.

Without so much as a word, he slid on his shoes and grabbed his wooden replica of a nichirin blade, walking past Tanjirou towards the training room.

* * *

Tanjirou held his blade in front of him, keeping an eye on Giyuu's form. The man had a lazy, unmoving look to him when he wasn't on the offensive, but the moment he got aggressive, the attacks were non-stop. Against an opponent like Giyuu, it was best to deflect the first attack and then follow up with an attack of his own.

It took a moment, but Tanjirou noticed the first telegraph when Giyuu's right foot slid slightly, as if he were putting pressure on it. That was all Tanjirou needed to know.

"Dance of the Fire God, third form," Tanjirou breathed, "Scorching Crimson Mirror." Tanjirou whipped his sword around, and good thing he did. A moment later and Giyuu's blade would've connected. The first slice of Tanjirou's attack caught the side of Giyuu's sword, deflecting it off to the side, the sound of wood cracking against wood resounding throughout the room. Not wasting a moment, Tanjirou followed through on the first attack, allowing the momentum of the first swing to carry his blade through a second strike to his opponent's leg.

Giyuu, of course, didn't fall for the trap, instead using the tip of his blade as a lever to throw himself over Tanjirou's shoulder, his body rotating. _Second form, Water Wheel, _Tanjirou recognized it just in time for his own blade to be caught by Giyuu's followthrough, ripping it from his grip.

The wooden sword was launched into the air, but Tanjirou didn't have time to wait around for it to come back down. The instant Giyuu landed back on the ground, he spun on the ball of his foot, whipping the sword in a circle.

_Fourth Form, Striking Tide,_ Tanjirou recognized the arm patterns just in time. With no blade to counter, Tanjirou focused his breathing, moving all of the oxygen, all of the power to his legs.

"Dance of the Fire God, modified first form," Tanjirou said, pushing back his right leg and deepening the pressure that leg, focusing all of the power into the limb, "Waltz Flash."

Tanjirou sprang forward, kicking off of the ground at a speed only beaten by Zenitsu. With no blade to speak of, Tanjirou took a page out of Inosuke's book. He knew that striking tide was a move that consisted of two horizontal slashes, one at an angle upwards and the second at an angle downwards. Waltz Flash had caused Tanjirou to close the distance between him and his sparring partner within the blink of an eye.

Tanjirou _slid_ under the first slash of Giyuu's sword, and took advantage of the moment of confusion to wrap his left leg around his opponent's right knee, and _pulled_. Giyuu, who'd been in the middle of an attack, lost his balance at the sudden yank and his leg buckled.

Hefting himself up, Tanjirou rotated around the leg, using his own intertwined leg as a pivot point, and got onto his feet. A quick glance upwards showed Tanjirou that the blade that Giyuu had launched from his grip a moment before was just about to land…_right on top of them._

Tanjirou used his other foot and kicked the flat side of Giyuu's sword, knocking it aside for the split second longer that he needed. Just as Giyuu was about to shove Tanjirou off, the boy reached up and grabbed the hilt of the sword, and not a moment he levelled it at Giyuu's neck threateningly.

The older man froze for a moment, staring at the blade with cold, empty eyes.

"Three to two," Tanjirou said, lowering the oversized stick, "I win today."

Giyuu didn't respond except for a huff as he grabbed Tanjirou's hand to pull himself to his feet. "I didn't expect you to run _at_ a sword."

Tanjirou let out a half-hearted laugh. "We've sparred...how many times now? It's got to be getting close to a hundred. You should know all about my dirty tricks by now."

"You're not Inosuke," Giyuu said flatly.

Tanjirou left out a sigh. "I wish I could be as carefree as that blundering idiot."

Giyuu gave Tanjirou an odd look, like he was going to say something but thought better of it, and turned away, walking over to the water basin. Tanjirou did the same, taking a long, deep drink to refresh himself.

Surprisingly, Giyuu spoke up. "Kanao's out on a mission?"

"Mhmm," Tanjirou hummed, nodding.

Silence fell between them once more, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence, just a heavy one. Their camaraderie had developed quite a bit since Muzan's escape, though it wasn't exactly what one would call a normal friendship. They were both messes, but they could be messes together.

Eventually, Giyuu just left, back off to his room to close himself in for another few days until Tanjirou went to ask him to spar again.

Giyuu had taken Muzan's escape far worse than even Tanjirou had. Where Tanjirou was disappointed in their failure and frustrated by the complete lack of progress towards even finding the demon or finishing developing Nezuko's cure, Giyuu had been completely broken.

Giyuu blamed himself for Muzan's escape. He blamed himself for not being able to keep everyone safe, for being too weak, as he put it. The part that hit him the hardest was Shinobu's death. Tanjirou knew little of Giyuu's past, the man didn't speak of it often. What he _did_ know was how lonely the man had been and felt for such a long time, and how everyone he'd ever cared about had been taken from him by demons. His sister, gone, Sabito, gone, and now Shinobu, gone.

Shinobu had been the closest thing Giyuu could call a friend among the pillars. Despite her teasing and insistence that everyone hated him, she also stuck around him more than any other Hashira, or even any other person, and although Tanjirou didn't know the extent of their relationship, he knew that they'd been close in some way or another.

After they returned from the fight in the dimensional infinity fortress, Giyuu had resigned his position as not only a Hashira, but a demon slayer in general. He locked himself in a room at the butterfly estate, and for the 3 months following the battle, refused to leave outside of eating and drinking. He picked up an obsession with whittling, butterflies in particular, so it wasn't hard to guess that it was a coping mechanism.

The man fell into a deep depression, one that Tanjirou knew for certain he still hadn't recovered from. Part of Tanjirou thought that he was just wasting away the rest of his years, waiting for the day that he turns twenty-five and the mark kills him.

Tanjirou had eventually coaxed Giyuu out of his room, and the sparred about three times a week. It was not only good swordplay practice, but it was also good for both their sanities. It helped Tanjirou distract himself from all the stresses that came with being a hashira and it was good for Giyuu as an outlet to escape from his own mind.

Over time, Tanjirou had gotten Giyuu to come out more and more often. He joined them for dinner from time to time, and even walked around the estate on occasion of his own will. Getting him to properly take care of himself was still a problem, but at least they had a start, which was a step in the right direction.

As Tanjirou walked back up to his room, he felt a little bit more at ease than what he'd been before sparring. It was a good way to clear his mind and put himself into a better headspace. Even then, he had a lot he wanted to talk about and not many people that he could talk about it _with_.

_Kanao,_ he thought, eyes looking around the room, _Be back as soon as you can._

* * *

Kanao arrived at the village in the late evening three days after she departed. It was a long way to travel, and after sleeping sparsely and in the most uncomfortable places for so long, she was looking forward to a soft futon to sleep for the night.

Hanawari village wasn't the smallest one she'd ever visited in her years as a demon slayer, but it was by no means large and a long shot from the industrial powerhouse that was Tokyo. The bulk of the buildings sat on a main road with scattered homes across the countryside. The most notable thing about the village, however, was the scenery. Wildflowers spanned the entire hillside leading up towards the mountains, and fields as far as the eye could see were lit up by hues of purple, blue, red, pink, and orange.

_I should take a stroll through them after this mission is over with,_ she thought, feeling a little warm inside at the beautiful sight. _It won't be too long before the first snow kills them until next year._

Kanao tore her eyes off of the flower field, heading down the main road towards the inn. The street was relatively unpopulated, most likely due to the time, but there were still a few scattered people about. Tiredly, Kanao finally got to the inn, pulling open the sliding door.

On the inside, a woman sat behind the small counter, writing something on a piece of paper. When she heard Kanao enter, her head came up to meet Kanao's eyes.

Reflexively Kanao adjusted her haori to hide her blade. Most people didn't take kindly to people openly carrying weapons, much less a woman. One of the first things Shinobu taught her once she began training was to not let the world know that she was a demon slayer and to blend in as best as she could.

"A room for one, please," Kanao said softly, trying to keep her exhaustion out of her voice.

The lady raised an eyebrow. "You're alone? A lady such as you?"

Kanao bit back a retort about how she could take care of herself. "My husband is meeting me here in the morning, I just arrived a bit early, is all," she lied. It wasn't uncommon to have people be suspicious so she'd long since come up with a plausible explanation.

The woman seemed to accept the explanation, as she turned her gaze down to another sheet of paper, scribbling something down.

"Family name?"

Kanao bit her lip, holding herself back from saying Kamado. _Less than a month,_ she reminded herself. "Tsuyuri," she finally said.

The woman wrote down the name and reached into her desk. Kanao noticed she used the wrong kanji, not that it really mattered. Kanao paid for her room and took the room key.

"It's the second door on the right."

"Thank you."

As Kanao walked away, she heard the woman mutter something. "No business for weeks, then two visitors in a night…"

The rooms were laid out as a simple set of doors down a hallway. Kanao was too busy playing with the key in her hand that she didn't even notice one of the doors slide open.

Kanao would've fell to the floor if not for her reaction speed. The second she bumped into something, she reflexively took a step back, putting her hand on the wall to steady herself.

"I'm sor-" Kanao started to apologize, but her tongue stopped moving the instant she looked up.

Before her stood a person she'd hoped to never meet again in her life. He hadn't changed his appearance at all since the last time that she'd encountered him. He still had the same curly hair, the same slitted red eyes, and the same pale skin.

Kanao's hand shot to her hip as she grabbed for her blade, but she fumbled, unused to her haori being blocking it. In the moment she wasted, there was a flash of movement, and a split second later she was thrown into the open door and slammed against the wall. Sharp claws dug into the side of her neck.

"Is attempting to cut my head off really the best way to greet me, old _friend_?" the man said softly, his voice snakelike and cold.

Kanao felt anger bubble up from inside her, pure, unadulterated rage from the bottom of her chest.

"Cutting off your head is the only way to greet you," Kanao seethed through gritted teeth, "Kibutsuji Muzan."

The claws dug into the side of her neck, and another hand clasped over her mouth to stifle her yelp of pain.

"Let's have a talk, why don't we?" Muzan said.

The next thing Kanao knew was pain filling her entire body as she lost consciousness.

* * *

Kanao didn't return after a week like expected. She didn't even return after two. Days became weeks and weeks became months. Three months after Kanao didn't return, she was presumed dead.

Words could not describe the level of pain Tanjirou felt when, instead of a wedding ceremony, he found himself at a funeral.

* * *

_Ending note: New chapter of Demons in the Rough should be up in a few days :)_


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